Friday, August 7, 2015

Fleet Friday - Learning the New York Class Battleship

I'll start with my current statistics because... statistics!

Over the last three weeks I have been making steady progress in my individual game play, but my team game play has suffered. That may be just a turn of fate as the matching system is random, or it could be I need to become a better team player. I suspect it's a little of both. As I progress in ship tiers, some of these statistics are bound to go up (battles fought - derp.) As I've played more battleships of course my average damage will go up providing I don't totally suck. The two stats that makes my observation about my game play seem right are victories per battle (the team play stat) and my kill/death ratio (my individual performance stat.) Here's how that's looked since July 19th. The question is, do I go for individual glory or team play?

I've been alternating between the Cleveland class cruiser and the New York class battleship this entire week. There has been a learning curve, but over the last two days things have been going better. Last night I participated in three victories, a draw and a defeat. The defeat was not because of bad play, but because the team was down a battleship - mine. I had a user interface error. The client would not respond to any key I pressed. I could type in chat, but I couldn't even engage my engines. The mouse would not fire my guns. I have a video of what happened. Anyone else ever see this bug before?

That issue aside, I've managed enough experience fighting the Tier V New York class battleship this week I've been able to completely upgrade it.

Completely Upgraded New York Class Battleship

It makes a difference. With better AA, and more armor, the ship really comes into its own considering its base design is pre-WWI. My statistics, which started off badly, got better once I purchased the B hull. My best score to date with the New York class doesn't come close to my best overall, but it was satisfying nonetheless.

Experience 1,490

Damage caused 61,141

Warships destroyed 2

Aircraft destroyed 6

It also helps to have a full load of optional updates. If you've not purchased any, you should. They also make a difference. It may be just the edge you need to get your armor-piercing shells where they're needed. Here's what I've done for my optional upgrades.

The 20% reduction in main turret catastrophe possibilities I took to keep me in the fight. I can't win it I'm not 100% on the main turrets. The reload and traverse upgrade helps with the DPS output quite a bit from what I've noticed. I've surprised more than a couple American destroyers who thought they could make the torpedo run before I could reload and vaporize them. The flooding and fire reduction was just better looking to me than any of the other two options. Again, it was about keeping the ship in the fight.

And let's not forget the commander makes a difference as well. If I'd have been smart I'd have moved my South Carolina commander successively to the Wyoming class and thus to the New York class. At the time, I didn't understand it could be done. I learned of the possibility while I was fighting the Wyoming class. So when I got the New York class I moved my captain to her and paid doubloons for the instant training. Here's what my battleship skipper currently has going for him; including here he's going next.

I'm really coming to appreciate the nuances involved, and the synergy between, the optional upgrades and captain training. It takes a game that could easily be just a random number victory generator, and allows you to weight the dice in your favor and not the house's. When clans come into the game it will be fascinating to see how these options complement their tactics, or don't. I wonder if some clans will dictate ship fits for certain fleets as they do in EVE Online? That might be something to see. So what are the upgrade and captain training combinations you're using to good effect? Leave your thoughts in the comments and as always, battle on.

Yeah, it's a real two edged sword. I like the faster traversal for dealing with little fast ships, but in a one on one with another BB I'm hurting myself. I think I'm going to give accuracy a shot (hah! unintended pun!) next I log in and see how it does. I really hate missing and I do tend to miss a bit more than I'd like to. Then I'll be able to make a comparison.

EDIT: I just checked and I don't have an accuracy upgrade option. I have a 16% range upgrade option and an AA option. What am I missing?